The Gatekeeper: You have Their Attention Part 2

"Marketing Terms for: gatekeeper. member of a decision-making unit or social group who acts to prevent or discourage a purchase by controlling the flow of information and/or access to people in the buying center." www.allbusiness.com

You got the Gatekeeper to say yes on sending information, but that does not mean you have the sale. If your approach was straight to the point, that is where you want to remain with your information.

Don’t get bogged down now with unnecessary details

You want to quickly highlight the reason/problem for their agreeing to look at the information. Myself, I like using a pdf file with an outline format with bullets. I also keep it to one sheet of paper. Anything more than that, you are going into much detail. I may also use a very short video explaining how the product works and the benefits

With my information on the email and the document, I absolutely stay away from small print. The smallest font should be 12 and 14 on your subtitles or 12 with bold. To small of a font, they will lose interest. And, don’t hesitate on using colors to emphasize your key points. (Not to much in red)

I like the pdf file instead of the actual email because you can get a good format which makes it an easy, understandable and reader friendly document.

On the email itself, I use a very similar introduction and I try to keep it one or two small paragraphs … just enough to jog their memory. And, use their name.

Your name

The company

A short to the point why your contact

That you have put the information on the attachment

A reminder of the scheduled follow up with them

On the pdf file stay away from the history of your company. The awards, your bio. That all comes later. At this time, it is all about them and that you have exactly what they need.

In your letterhead, it’s a good idea to have the year you were established.

You may be asking yourself what about building the relationship. Well, the best way to explain that is when you were dating, did you start out on the first date immediately talking about marriage? Same thing. Don't rush it.

You want to encourage a question and answer period. Use this to send more information. It may take 2 or 3 calls just with the Gatekeeper. Let them set the pace, and you tune in and provide the answers.